On Wednesday, January 13, 2010, I joined 50 other Realtors from Hilton Head Island on a Trailways bus to the Statehouse in Columbia where the Senate was in session and scheduled to vote to abolish the Point of Sale Tax. This vote was delayed.   We joined 600 other Realtors from across the state of South Carolina on the steps and grounds of the Statehouse and braved below 40 degree temperatures for two hours to protest this unfair tax measure. 

The point of sale is unfair for many reasons and it is causing investors to make the decision not to invest in commercial properties, apartments and investment properties in South Carolina as well as first and second homes and instead go to our neighboring states of Georgia, North Carolina and Florida who enjoy more favorable tax rates.  An example of this sort of unfair taxation: if you had two commercial properties side by side and valued on the tax books for about the same amount of money, and one of those sold and the current assessment was raised to the sales price (point of sale) and the other one was not, the one that just sold would have to raise their rental rates substantially because of the high taxes while their neighbor would keep enjoying his low tax base and could charge much lower rents for the same thing than his neighbor who just bought his property.  The same thing applies to residential real estate where you have one new neighbor paying twice the tax as the neighbor who has been in his home for years and years when the houses are very similar in value.

This is just one example of how unfair the point of sale is and this is causing real estate sales to implode and investors to look in other states to make their investments.  South Carolina needs investment and South Carolina depends on an active real estate market and our tax structures in South Carolina are hurting us greatly and causing us to have a very difficut time competing with other areas for the investors who are out there willing and able to invest.

An agent from Charleston said at the rally in Columbia last Wednesday that Mayor Riley of Charleston made the statement in the Charleston newspaper that when people buy real estate in South Carolina, they are not concerned with the real esate taxes.  I have a hard time believing that anyone would ever make a statement as preposterous as that because in my 35 years of selling real estate, I can state with no reservations that when purchasing real estate ANYWHERE in the world, buyers are very concerned with real estate taxes.

I hope that the politicians in South Carolina will take the issue of Point of Sale seriously and end it now.  I also hope that they will seriously consider changing the unfair way that the South Carolina senators and representatives have supported the 6% assessment for non-residents and 4% assessment for residents.  This issue is slated to come up for consideration this Fall and it cannot happen soon enough because this unfair way we are taxing property owners in South Carolina is hurting the real estate business and the overall economy in South Carolina.  Real estate taxes should be fair and equitable for everyone.

If you have an opinion on this subject, we would love to hear from you.